Useful Idiots

Thursday, November 03, 2011

"Roosevelt issued a collectivist 'bill of rights' in which he said that the government should ensure 'the right to a useful and remunerative job ... the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation ... the right of every family to a decent home ... the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health ... the right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age ... the right to a good education.'" - Mark Alexander - Patriot Post

"The intellectually challenged Occupy [people aka "Useful idiots"] have built their movement around the errant assertion that if the assets of the 1 Percent were entirely redistributed, everyone would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, what the 35 Percenters really want, "redistributive justice" as Obama calls it, would require the redistribution of income from the other 65 percent of Americans families who live on earned income, so that everyone could be equally impoverished. Of course, there's a problem with liquidating the assets of the 1 percent (comprised of more celebrities and pro athletes than Wall Street bankers), or even the top 25 percent of the so-called rich: Most of their assets are on paper, and the rest of that "wealth" is in the form of small businesses and real property that support the jobs of tens of millions of Americans who actually work for a living -- and take pride in their occupations. Thus, liquidation would result in the collapse of the entire economy, leaving everyone under the same statist tyranny as Obama's 35 Percenters -- equally miserable, equally dependent upon the government, and that much closer to Obama's mandate to implement Democratic Socialism." - Mark Alexander Patriot Post

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

The black flag of Al Qaeda was hoisted in Libya yesterday as Nato formally ended its military campaign.

The standard fluttered from the roof of the courthouse in Benghazi, where the country’s new rulers have imposed sharia law since seizing power.

Seen as the seat of the revolution, the judicial building was used by rebel forces to establish their provisional government and media centre.

Change of regime? A trademark Al Qaeda flag was seen flying over Benghazi's courthouse last week

Flying high: The Al Qaeda flag, with Arabic writing and a moon design, can be seen flying alongside a Libyan national flag above Benghazi's courthouse

The flag has been spotted on the courthouse several times, prompting denials from the National Transitional Council that it was responsible.

Taking a bulldozer to Gaddafi's estate: Libyans demolish dictator's former home as diplomat warns of 'revenge culture'

Is this the last letter from Gaddafi ? A plea to his 'friend' Silvio Berlusconi begs him to stop Nato bombings

Complete with Arabic script declaring ‘there is no God but Allah’ and a full moon underneath, it was hoisted alongside the Libyan national flag.

Extremists have been seen on Benghazi’s streets at night, waving the Al Qaeda flag and shouting ‘Islamiya, Islamiya! No East, nor West, VICE reported.

NATO'S LIBYA CAMPAIGN

Mar 17: U.N Security Council passes a resolution to impose a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace.

Mar 19: French and Italian aircraft enter Libyan airspace to begin reconnaissance and surveillance. British and U.S. ships and submarines fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libyan air and ground defences.

Naval blockade also enforced.

May 11: Nato aircraft fires four rockets at Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, killing two people.

May 12: 52 NATO strikes are carried out against loyalist targets across the country.

May 26: In the strongest attack of the operation so far, Nato planes bomb 20 targets in Tripoli under 30 minutes.

June 13: Nato carries out 62 airstrikes against targets in Tripoli and four other cities.

June 20: Nato is accused of killing 19 civilians in Sorman, west Tripoli, following another attack

July 16: Another Nato strike kills 10 rebels and wounds 172 during an advance on Brega.

Aug 9: Nato bombs a warship in Tripoli harbour.

Aug 20: Nato-supported rebels in Tripoli launch an uprising in the city, as Nato launch bombing raids over government targets.

Oct 20: Rebel forces take Sirte, with Gaddafi captured and eventually killed as Nato planes attack his convoy.

Oct 23: Gaddafi's family are forced to flee as rebels claim his compound in Bab al-Azizia.

Oct 31: Nato ends operations in Libya

A sudden lurch toward extremism will alarm many in the West who supported the ousting of Colonel Gaddafi.

It also threatens to embarrass David Cameron who staked his personal reputation on the campaign to free Libya from the tyrant. Nato stuck to its decision to end its seven-month operation despite calls from the National Transitional Council for it to stay longer.

Allies of Nato have been keen to see a quick conclusion to a costly effort that has involved 26,000 air sorties and round-the-clock naval patrols.

The UN Security Council authorised the mission in March to protect civilians in the civil war.

Nato staff temporarily seconded to the headquarters in Naples for the Libyan operation are being reassigned to their regular duties, officials said.

Last week, the country’s interim leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, declared that sharia will be the ‘basic source’ of legislation.

The chairman of the National Transitional Council has also declared the country’s future parliament will have an ‘Islamist tint’.

Sharia law is a form of hardline Islamic rule favoured by fundamentalist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mr Abdul-Jalil has been at pains to insist ‘that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims’, and has said the proposed constitution is ‘temporary’ and will be put to a referendum.

But he has given a speech in which he said any law that ‘violates sharia’ is ‘null and void’.

This means Libyan men will be free to take more than one wife, a policy branded a ‘disaster for women’ by Adelrahman al-Shatr, a founder of the newly-formed centre-right Party of National Solidarity.

He said: ‘By abolishing the marriage law, women lose the right to keep the family home if they divorce. It is a disaster for Libyan women.

The Al-Qaeda flag was seen above Benghazi's courthouse just days after Libyan rebels imposed Sharia law on parts of the country (file picture)

‘It is a subject that should be discussed with the different political groups and with the Libyan people. These declarations create feelings of pain and bitterness among women.’

A spokesman for a group called Women Living Under Muslim Laws said: ‘Women are directly targeted by this change in laws and will lose many acquired rights in the process.’

The Benghazi courthouse was the epicentre of the revolution and on its forecourt in February running battles were fought with Gaddafi’s mercenaries in the first few days of the uprising.

After Benghazi fell to the rebels, the courthouse became the headquarters of the fledgling leadership. They barricaded the main doors with wooden logs and set up a rudimentary government on the first floor, from where they worked tirelessly to organise the rest of the eight-month revolution.

To this day, captured tanks parked outside the courthouse are a playground for children and a symbol of the people’s defeat of the tyrant

Monday, October 31, 2011

OAKLAND, Calif. - Apparently we've reached a new low in public education.

School children, parents and taxpayers can only count on classes being taught if the teachers don't have some political cause to march for that day.

It was sickening enough last winter, when the teachers in dozens of districts in Wisconsin left their students hanging while they fled to Madison for several days of public whining. The students had nothing to do with the legislature's decision to tighten the terms of collective bargaining. Neither did their parents or the taxpayers at large.

But the students had to pay the price.

Now we have Oakland, California, where a group of radical teachers plan to shut down three schools that we know of Wednesday (and quite possibly more) because they want the day off to join a general national strike called for by the Occupy people.

If you recall, the Occupy people are largely motivated by their belief that the wealthiest one percent of Americans should pay more taxes. That means at least some students of Oakland will miss a day of school because their teachers don't like U.S. tax policy!

"Evening all," read an email from Steve Neat, communications chairman of the Oakland Education Association. "I've been talking to Caitlin Esch from KQED radio and she's enquiring [sic] which schools are honoring the one-day general strike Nov. 2 as an entire staff. At this point I am aware of Bridges Academy and Maxwell Park. I know Oakland High is working on it. Any others that we know of?"

We hope the teachers of Oakland spell better than Mr. Neat. We're sure he meant to spell 'inquiring' rather than 'enquiring'.

This statement came from a flier distributed to the parents of students who attend Oakland's Bridges Academy: "We, the teachers at Bridges, are joining the Occupy Oakland protest on Wednesday, Nov. 2. We will not be in our classrooms that day, all day. We are the 99%!!"

Apparently some teachers will use personal days, which means their schools will have to hire substitute teachers. Substitutes cost districts extra money, and are only supposed to work when teachers legitimately need time off.

One school apparently has a shortage of subs, so its having a lottery to determine which teachers will be allowed to leave and protest.

What about the taxpayers who have already coughed up hard-earned money for classes to take place on Wednesday? Shouldn't they they have a say in this, or at least get a refund? And what type of precedent is this setting?

Will the teachers be allowed to walk out later if they're upset about foreign policy, interstate commerce regulations or the price of license plates in California? What if, to the teachers' great horror, the Republican nominee for president is elected in 2012? Should they have the right to take a month off from work?

Public school students have an absolute right to an education uninterrupted by adult political concerns, whether those concerns are related to collective bargaining or government policies that the teachers find objectionable.

Any teacher who is willing to sacrifice five minutes of student instruction time over any political issue does not deserve to call himself or herself an educator.

If political issues are more important to these people than their students, they should go find a job in the political world and make room for new teachers who actually want to teach.

Teaching is a public service, and public service comes with a degree of self-restraint and sacrifice.

In this case, the obvious sacrifice would be to save political activities until after school, so the students get the instruction that taxpayers have funded.

The law in every state should allow local school boards to immediately fire any teacher who fails to show up for work for any type of political cause, including collective bargaining issues.

The students of America should never be second priority to politics.

Unions will only have it their way

The Oakland Education Association has released a position paper, outlining its reasons for endorsing the Occupy general strike.

Their main point is that "On Wednesday, Oct. 26 the OUSD School Board voted to shutter five schools in Oakland. Unless we build a movement to demand that the top one percent pay their fair share, more school closures will follow."

When school districts raise taxes, it affects far more than the top one percent. The teachers fail to understand that many taxpayers are either unemployed or underemployed at the moment, and many of them make a lot less than school employees.

Meanwhile, the school employees keep swamping their local districts with unsustainable labor costs that were created through irresponsible collective bargaining.

A typical public school in America spends about 75 percent of its overall budget on labor.

When it comes time to cut costs, you would think the local labor unions (particularly the teachers) would be willing to make a few temporary sacrifices to keep younger teachers on the job and student programs intact.

But in hundreds of districts across the nation, teachers unions have refused to sacrifice anything for the common good.

Many unions continue to insist on automatic, annual step raises (regardless of performance), free or low-cost health insurance, free or low-cost pensions, seniority bonuses, retirement bonuses, extra pay for having a few extra kids in their classrooms, full salaries and benefits for union presidents who don't teach, and reimbursement for unused sick days.

Meanwhile their school boards are forced to lay off dozens of low-seniority teachers and cancel the tennis, cross country and debate programs for students.

And it gets sicker than that. Instead of leaving their political viewpoints in the street, pro-Occupy teachers are insisting on indoctrinating their young, impressionable students with their political beliefs.

"In the union stronghold of California, teachers have begun to take the fight into the classroom with a lesson plan titled 'Who are the 99 percent? Ways to teach about Occupy Wall Street,' " one report said.

Way to go, teachers. Don't give the kids a balanced look at the Occupy movement and present all sides of the debate. That would be too fair and downright educational. Instead you're going to present your point of view as the correct point of view, and allow students to leave your classroom believing your words are gospel.

How would the unions react if a public school teacher gave daily lessons about Dick Cheney's plan for America, and how he was right about every issue? Do you think labor leaders would object to that?

Parents send their children to school to learn the fundamentals - not to be indoctrinated into any political movement.

Lawmakers in states around the nation must put their foot down and make one thing clear: If politics are going to be allowed in the classroom, they must be presented in a balanced, educational way that allows students to view issues from all perspectives and make up their own minds.

And under no circumstances should teachers be allowed to miss school to participate in any sort of political demonstration. If they do, they should automatically sacrifice their right to teach in any public school ever again.

1. Agenda: Unlike the clarity of the Tea Party message of smaller government, the Wall Street Occupiers have a potpourri of juvenile demands, from free college education and an annual living wage to “forgiveness of debt on the entire planet.” One protester mused that the solution was to do away with money altogether. Apparently these recipients of federal student loans have yet to take Economics 101.

2. Celebrities: The usual suspects of empty-headed progressive Hollywood stars are showing up at the Wall Street rally, many arriving by limo. Millionaires Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore and Roseanne Barr have all made appearances. Kanye West wore gold jewelry worth more than many protesters have made in their lifetimes. If they hadn’t noticed, these stars are part of the 1%.

3. Soros: The roster of George Soros-funded entities are aiding and abetting the Occupy movement. AdBusters, an anti-consumerist publication that sounded the initial call for the protests, is funded in part by Tides, a major recipient of Soros’ funding. Another Soros venture—MoveOn.org—has rallied support for the initiative. Soros, a billionaire several times over largely through currency manipulation, says he “sympathizes with their grievances” of those protesting corporate greed.

4. Arrests: Unlike the Tea Party rallies, there have been numerous arrests at the Occupy protests, as the crowds ignore city ordinances about overnight camping on public property. Nearly a thousand were arrested in New York for blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, snarling traffic for those who work for a living, and hundreds have been taken into custody in Chicago, Boston and other cities.

5. Politics: Democrats from President Obama on down are trying to find common ground with the Occupy Wall Streeters, hoping the protests can be the liberal equivalent of the Tea Party and breathe some life into a moribund progressive movement. The hypocrisy is ripe—the President has garnered more corporate donations than any politician in the nation’s history.

6. Unpatriotic: OWS protests routinely view the United States as the enemy. The American flag is trashed, desecrated and flown upside down. A Coast Guard female officer in uniform was harassed and spit on near the Boston rally. In Portland, Ore., a speaker said, “F**k America.” The protesters would like nothing better than to see the decline of their country.

7. Extremists: It is no small feat to be praised by both the American Nazi Party and the Communist Party USA. From aging hippies who are trying to relive the glory of the Sixties to the younger anarchists who have nothing better to do, many of the OWS protesters are extremists who show up at every left-wing demonstration.

8. Trash: After Tea Party rallies, the grounds were generally swept clean of garbage by the protesters, leaving the areas cleaner than before they arrived. In contrast, at OWS protests, piles of trash are mounting, creating a public health hazard. And after several weeks, many in the crowd are in dire need of a shower.

9. Anti-Semitic: While the mainstream media pushed a fictitious story line that the Tea Party was a cauldron of racism, the OWS rallies feature plenty of examples of outright anti-Semitism. The rallies are marrying the anti-Zionist tirades of the Left with the stereotypical view of Jewish Wall Street bankers to create an ugly atmosphere.

10. Signs: The Tea Party rallies were always full of clever signs, poking fun at Big Government and Barack Obama, and honoring the Founding Fathers and the Constitution. By contrast, the Occupy Wall Street signs are characterized by misspelled words, profanity and inane statements such as, “One day the poor will have nothing left to eat but the rich.”